round connector pieces, and eight
bright high school mathematics stu-
dents working individually and collabo-
ratively for two hours to build a dozen
beach ball-sized geometric shapes
known as extended rhombicosidodeca-
hedra or "mega-connectors."
ing" -- came when the individual
mega-connectors were connected with
additional plastic struts to form a mega-
icosahedron standing some six feet tall.
sized structure using Zometool con-
struction pieces. Zometool is an
easy-to-use yet mathematically precise
educational construction "toy" that is
as likely to be found in an elementary
school classroom as it is in a research
scientist's lab or engineer's office.
tor pieces allows for construction in 62
different directions, enabling users to
build millions of geometric structures.
the Quick Center for the Arts, offered
space in the center, then recruited stu-
dents through math teachers Todd
Christopher at Allegany-Limestone
High School and Kris Ring at Olean
High. The student participants were
Spears and Pete Marciano II from Alle-
gany-Limestone and Andy Lu, Matt
Witte, Becca Lasky and Nicole Sova
from Olean High. The students were
joined by teachers Christopher and
Ring, as well as Allegany-Limestone
teacher Linda Dodd-Nagel and St.
Bonaventure education student Jackie
Donovan.
students built models with such esoteric
names as the cube-in-the-dodecahedron
and the rhombic triacontahedron, as
well as elaborate structures of their
own design. Then the students got to
work building the mega-connectors.
Two hours later, they were linking the
spheroids with "mega-struts" to form
the towering stand-alone model.
for programming contest
conducted the 24th annual High School
Programming Contest March 23.
Eleven schools brought 14 teams to
campus to participate in the competi-
tion. Each team consisted of up to four
students who wrote computer pro-
grams to solve problems assigned them.
In addition to Computer Science fac-
ulty, 15 St. Bonaventure students
helped in various aspects of the contest,
N.Y., won the competition by solving six
of the nine problems correctly and did it
in a total of 607 minutes. Ithaca (N.Y.)
High School finished in second place
and Phillips Exeter Academy from Ex-
eter, N.H., finished in third place.
earn honorable distinction
was inducted into Sigma Pi Sigma, the
national physics honor society.
inducted," said Jerry Kiefer, chair of the
department. "But they're all certainly de-
serving. They were tremendous stu-
dents."
Sigma Pi Sigma were Courtney E. Bosse
of Carmel, Ind.; Jacob R. Donius of Al-
fred Station; Steven M. Gearhart of East
Aurora; John W. Hasper of Great Valley;
and Troy D. Mulholland of Dewittville.
All five entered graduate school last fall,
studying fields such as physics, biomedical
engineering, materials science and astro-
physics. Inductees to the society must
demonstrate outstanding scholastic
achievement both in physics and in their
overall programs of study.